Living life one day at a time. Sharing recipes, joy, inspiration, thoughts for the day, photos of our dog, Bailey! The "Cutest Dog in America."
Now I'm in a new phase, sharing the joy (and challenges) of Co-owning the Urban Grill Food Truck. Stay tuned...

Monday, January 14, 2013

It's been a long winter and it's only mid-January. But the wait has been good. I feel like Spring is around the corner, so many things are about to bloom.

I used to be terrible at waiting. In recent years I've learned that in the transition time and in waiting is where growth, character and learning occurs. I can certainly say that is true as it relates to making this life change (church volunteer to food entrepeneur), building our food truck, developing our partnership (ugft llc) and building other aspects of our food related business. It's all good. Really very good.

We've learned a lot. The refining comes in the waiting. Refining of ideas, fine-tuning of plans, names, recipes, even some objectives. It becomes obvious whom to trust in the industry, who is knowledgeable, and whom to avoid. (yes they are out there!) All that glitters is not gold.

Refining - purifies and strengthens!

We are so glad we didn't announce our full fledged business plan to the world back in July when this started. Our working name has changed three times, but we love the one we ultimately settled upon! Some of you already know it. We'll still unveil our logo/truck/website when it is all ready. We are the "Urban Grill Food Truck." (hence the ugft llc)We'd be happy to have you follow us on our Twitter page if you are in the Twittersphere. @UrbanGrillCincy. We'll let you know when other social media is ready. It's waiting for the truck photos.

The truck designis so close to being complete. Just one or two more things...We like it, we hope you do too.The truck itself, well lets just say my partner is a genius. And a fine craftsman. I can't wait for you to see the truck. The inside of the truck still needs some work, that has been our biggest area of frustration. But we are almost there also.It's good, it just takes time. The amount of detail, especially when both partners are 'detail oriented' and want everything to be lined up 'just right,' is staggering..it WILL be finished, but it does take time.

Our exact menu plan has changed a few times too. Since we aren't going with just one item type as many other trucks have very successfully done, it's been more difficult to articulate 'what kind of truck we are,' especially and particularly since that has evolved. In the refining we now know who we are. We are an American Grill, we specialize in hot sandwiches.

Maybe it works great for other people to get a truck and 'refine as they go' I think that's great, but it's not me. I'm glad to have had this time to wrap my mind around who/what we really want to be and to serve to the public and have our truck/name/image all line up with that. And we are so excited about how all of that is turning out. We can't wait to be out there and share it all with you. Although we will still need to be flexible and refine as we learn our business and get out there in the real truck world. We know we'll still need to make changes and adjustments as we go. And thank you to the other food truck and restaurant owners we've spoken with recently who have given us true friendship and support to build our business. We appreciate you immensely and look forward to being out there with you, and to building our futures together.

The 'test kitchens' have been humming. That's both of our respective kitchens, as we practice and refine our menus and additional items. Creativity abounds! We like what we are trying out, we hope you do too. We can not wait to share it with you. Thanks for your patience.

I'm especially grateful to friends who have let me informally and unofficially cater their holiday and/or family get-togethers to practice my food and techniques. Wow! What an experience. This has been overwhelmingly positive and in-valuable to me. Thank you so much, you know who you are! Bless you...

Also, the flip side of waiting. I'm waiting, Randy's waiting. We're working through it and planning. Others just know we each talked about starting a business. In some cases that was last summer and we thought we might still catch some of the summer business. (LAST summer's business!) I can hear it in people's voices as they ask about the food truck, as things get delayed, a little bit of credibility starts to get lost. You can almost hear the wheels turning in peoples minds. (Those who don't hear me speaking about it on a daily basis.)

"I wonder if they really are going to come out with this truck?"

"Maybe they'll just change their minds and sell it or give up on it, it's been a long time."

Hahahahahaha! Those are the people who don't know either of us very well. Please see 'determined' in your dictionary. See you soon, from the truck.

Again, as stated above. Good things abound. Things which are not settled yet, things which are in the works and things being refined. Thanks for your patience with me, us and waiting for this to launch. Thank you mostly for your support. Thanks for checking in to see if I've updated this blog, only to find out I did not. Sorry, sometimes it's hard to know what to say, still working....

But i can say, thank you!

I read this quote recently from the newspaper, it's not original, I believe Ben Franklin first stated it:

"The US Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself"

Make the most of today, it's the only one of which you (and I) are guaranteed.

Enjoy my blog? Pass it on... Share with friends

About Me

I'm Betsy Eicher, living and enjoying life one day at a time, grateful for each and every day! Sharing life with my husband and son, Dick and Eliot, and our mini labradoodle, Bailey.
The newer focus of this blog will be to share some of the joys and travails of starting up a Gourmet Food Truck!
If you read the older blog posts you'll read of the big time life style changes I made upon finding out I had a bummer of a liver disease. In those posts I wrote about the changes I made and shared some great recipes and family stories.
I'm still all about eating and drinking only those things which will help me be here to enjoy another day with my many great friends, family, and Bailey!!